


Some dogs, a moon and a wolf

by yankeetooter



Category: Chernobyl (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-19 06:48:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19969777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yankeetooter/pseuds/yankeetooter
Summary: Valery turns to poetry to express his love for Boris





	1. Reuniting with an old hobby

Valery sits on the couch, going through the paperwork spread before him. It's 10 p.m., and, as usual, he shows no sign of letting up for the night. He checks and rechecks numbers and reports obsessively, almost as though he can bring back all the lives lost.

Boris watches from an armchair a little way away. He is slumped in his chair, his eyes half closed, keeping an eye on his restless friend. Like an alligator mostly submerged in the water, he feigns sleep, the better to observe Valery without flustering him.

_Why is he like this? Is it the nicotine? Doesn't he realize that he needs to take a break from time to time? I've got to figure out how to get him to relax!_

Boris moves over to the couch next to Valery who barely stops what he's doing to nod at Boris.

_Well, that won't do..._

Boris begins running his fingers up and down Valery's spine. Valery immediately begins cooing his pleasure and abandons his work. He shivers as a wave of pleasure travels through him. Laying his head in Boris' lap, he stretches his tired back muscles and gives himself over to Boris' touch. Slowly his eyes close.

_It's good that he relaxed, but this won't work._

Boris has used this method before to get Valery to relax, but it's only a temporary solution. Valery inevitably falls asleep every time but his brain doesn't. After an hour or so, he reawakens and works until the wee hours of the morning. No, what Valery needs is some fresh air, and some conversation that doesn't revolve around radiation and death. So, shaking Valery gently...

"Valery, come, let's go for a walk."

At first, like a petulant child, Valery does not want to move. He only wants to lie on Boris' lap and let him rub his back. After a well-placed dig in the ribs, however, Valery sits up and rubs his eyes. 

"A walk now, Boris?"

"What better time, Valery! It's a beautiful night and the moon is full. Let's go!" 

Catching Boris' enthusiasm, Valery stands and stretches. A sly grin spreads across his face. "Do you have the kolbasa, Boris?", he laughs. Boris shakes his head, amused, and says, "Now, Valery, you know I always have plenty of kolbasa." Valery laughs at the shared joke and follows Boris out the door.

\-----------------------------------------

They stroll along, the dogs long fed and gone their own ways after determining there was no more food to be had. The KGB is lagging behind tonight, so Boris draws closer to Valery, slipping his arm through that of his friend's. Valery blushes in pleasure at this rare public intimacy. "Tell me, Valera, before all this, what did you do in your spare time?" 

Valery starts to talk about his fascination with nuclear physics and how he would spend hours reading up on the latest articles and journals. Boris dismisses all this fairly quickly. "Yes, yes, but what did you do that wasn't work-related, you know, for fun?" Valery has to think a moment. After all, doesn't Boris understand that he considers reading scientific journals fun? But after a moment, some other interests occur to him and he mentions them to Boris. "Reading the classics of course, whatever I can get my hands on. Oh, and poetry!"

"Poetry?" Boris asks, somewhat surprised. "What did you like to read in the way of poetry?"

"Oh, not just reading poetry, Boris, but writing it!" Valery exclaims in excitement, before it occurs to him why maybe he shouldn't have mentioned that to Boris. Sure enough, Boris is quick to ask him to recite something he wrote. Valery blushes. His poetry is not that good, and he's never shared it with anyone. Thinking quickly, he says, "Oh, I don't have any of it memorized. I just write it down." Boris' eyes gleam. "Good! Then when we next go to Moscow, you must bring back some of your poetry to read to me!"

Valery blanches a bit at being caught in Boris' trap, but perhaps Boris will forget by the next time they go into Moscow. They now walk in silence for awhile, just enjoying each other's company and the moonlight. Valery thinks back to when he used to have time to write poetry. It used to be one of the things that could help him sleep and stop his mind from racing from one scientific problem to another. 

_Maybe I should try writing some poetry while I'm here. But what on earth would I write about?_

Glancing at Boris, he knows what he would most like to write about, but what if the KGB got a hold of his work? That would be the end of them for sure!

\------------------------------------

Later that night, Valery sits in bed with a spare notebook. He has thought of a way to write of his love for Boris in a poem, without putting them in danger. As he finishes up, his head nods, and he falls asleep in bed, the notebook lying open to his poem.


	2. Caught in the act

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, no KGB!

About eight the next morning, Boris comes to wake Valery. They have a meeting at eleven, but he and Valery have gotten in the habit of having breakfast together.

Boris looks in Valery's bedroom, glad to see his friend deeply asleep. That walk was a good idea then!

Coming over to wake Valery, his eyes fall on a notebook with writing in it. Did Valery take work to bed after all? Upon closer inspection, however, Boris sees it's a poem of some sort. Putting on his reading glasses, he reads:

You shine into my life,  
'Tho at first I didn't see.  
Illuminating all that I am,  
And all that I ever could be.

You bring so many things into my life…  
Light, beauty, and joy.  
How could I not have noticed you before?

Like your waxing every month,  
The effects grow stronger each day.  
I know that you'll wane again,  
But never fully I pray.

I will enjoy all that you give  
Until that day shall arrive.  
I hope I reflect all your beauty.  
Throughout my shortened life.

I wonder what other worlds might see,  
And witness all that you give me.  
Has anybody ever seen before?  
All that you give and so much more?

Shine on, O silver moon,  
That wolves may howl at night.  
You loom so large upon this man,  
And bring such iridescent light.

Boris sits back, tears in his eyes. He's no poetry expert, but Valery's hidden meaning in the poem is clear. This man never ceases to amaze him with his inner beauty!

For some time Boris sits and contemplates his sleeping friend, but time is getting on so he reaches over to wake Valery with a kiss. Valery is so deeply asleep he doesn't even stir, so Boris gently shakes his shoulder, calling his name softly. Boris doesn't like to wake Valery suddenly; the man is so high-strung as it is that he feels it would only make it worse. But Valery is still not waking up. Finally, Boris pulls back the quilt to reveal a bare foot. He runs his fingernail up the arch of Valery's foot, and Valery giggles in his sleep, saying something about dogs. After doing this a few times, Valery comes fully awake, laughing and pulling his foot out of Boris' grasp.

"Boris, good morning! Do you know, I was having the strangest dream right before I woke up?"

Boris can only shrug and wait for Valery to tell him.

"I was dreaming that we were on a walk. We came to a bench and sat. Then, for some reason, you took my shoe and sock off and held my foot while the dogs licked it! I told you to stop, but you wouldn't! And then I woke up. What a strange dream!"

Boris only looks at Valery, his eyebrow going up at Valery's story, although he is laughing to himself. That man's imagination even works in his sleep! Valery is laughing at his own ridiculous dream when suddenly his eyes fall on the open notebook laying in the bed near where Boris is sitting. A look of shock comes over him.

"Did you...?" Boris nods gently. "Oh!" Valery goes beet red. He hadn't meant for Boris to read his poem!

"Valera, it's beautiful! Why are you embarrassed?"

Valery smiles more easily at Boris' obvious pleasure. "Did you really like it?" He barely gets the words out before Boris kisses him firmly on the lips. "Like it, Valery? It's the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said or written about me!"

Valery beams at Boris' praise of his poem. Suddenly, his eyes get that faraway look in them that Boris knows means his mind is busy working. Laughing good-naturedly, Boris prods Valery. "Hey! No holding back, moon-boy! What are you thinking about now?"

Valery looks shyly at Boris. "Do you know how the earth came to have a moon, Boris?"

"Er, I suppose that it captured some random object in its gravity like some of the other planets did?"

Valery is impressed, as always, with the things Boris grasps, from nuclear reactors to astronomy, apparently.

"Many planets acquired their moons that way, Boris, but the earth is different, actually. You see, the moon is so much larger than the other planets' moons, especially in relation to the earth's size. Also, it holds a much closer orbit than most moons in the solar system do."

Boris listens, enraptured as always by Valery when he is teaching him something. Valery has a way of making the mundane fascinating. Perhaps it is the poet in him.

"Scientists now believe that the moon was formed when a body nearly the size of earth crashed into the planet. What nearly destroyed the earth instead formed the moon and enabled life on the earth itself. They also think that because of this happening, the earth had a much more stable orbit, and the poles don't swing wildly from one location to another. The moon causes the tides and geologic activity with its gravitational pull, which also keeps the planet from rotating too fast and having devastating winds, like we think Mars and Jupiter do. In short, Boris, if it weren't for the moon, life as we know it on the earth would not exist."

Boris listens in wonder, but spreads his hands when Valery finishes his explanation, as if to ask why Valery is telling him all of this.

"Don't you see, Boris, you are my moon! When we first came together, it was quite a 'crash', that could have destroyed both of us." Boris smiles in remembrance of threats to throw Valery out of a helicopter, and Valery answers his smile with one of his own. "Instead, Boris, you transformed me, even in the midst of all this death. You awoke life in me, life that would never have come to be if it weren't for you coming into my life! Your steadiness and strength anchor me, and keep me from being overwhelmed!"

Tears are pouring down Boris' face as he grabs Valery and pulls him into his embrace. "There's only one problem with your analogy, Valera! You see, you are not the earth to me. You are my sun, moon and stars!"


End file.
